Who are the rich and famous in the Paradise Papers?

Apple, Bono and Queen Elizabeth II are just a few of the big names and companies revealed in the Paradise Papers leak to have shifted money across the globe to cut tax.

The spotlight on the tax affairs of the rich and powerful comes after a trove of documents was released by the US-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), detailing secretive offshore deals that, while not illegal, are embarrassing for those concerned.

Here are some of the most well-known names caught up in the controversy:

- Politics -

- Britain's Queen Elizabeth II has, through the Duchy of Lancaster which provides her income and handles her investments, placed around £10 million ($13 million, €11.3 million) of her private money in funds held in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda.

The funds were reinvested in an array of businesses, including controversial rent-to-own retailer BrightHouse which has been accused of exploiting the poor.

- US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross holds a 31 percent stake in maritime transport company Navigator Holdings through a complex web of offshore investments.

Navigator Holdings runs a lucrative partnership with Russian energy giant Sibur, linked to President Vladimir Putin's inner circle. Russia is subject to US sanctions.

- In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's top fundraiser and senior advisor Stephen Bronfman, heir to the Seagram fortune, moved some $60 million to an offshore haven in the Cayman Islands.

- Brazil's economy and agriculture ministers, Henrique Meirelles and Blairo Maggi, are also cited in offshore companies in tax havens.

- Celebrities -

- U2 frontman Bono is shown in the leak to own a stake in a Maltese company that bought in 2007 a Lithuanian shopping mall via a Lithuanian holding company, which may have broken tax rules by using an unlawful accounting technique.

- Britain's four-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton avoided paying taxes on a private jet, receiving a £3.3 million VAT refund in 2013 after it was imported into the Isle of Man, a low-tax British Crown Dependency.

- Multinationals -

- Technology giant Apple shifted much of its offshore wealth from Ireland to the Jersey tax haven in the British Isles to adapt to the tightening of Irish tax laws in 2015.

- US sportswear giant Nike used a loophole in Dutch fiscal law to reduce, via two companies based in the Netherlands, its tax rate in Europe to just two percent compared to the 25 percent average for European companies.

- The taxi-hailing ap Uber and the manufacturer of Botox, the Allergan pharmaceutical laboratory, allegedly used similar methods to Nike.

- The Paradise Papers also reveal that Russian companies with links to the Kremlin invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Twitter and Facebook.

The Internet giants are under fire, notably in the US Congress, for the use of their platforms to spread Russian rumours during the 2016 US presidential election.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

UK Queen's private estate invested in offshore funds: leaks

LONDON - Millions of pounds from the private estate of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II have been invested in offshore tax haven funds, a huge new leak of financial documents revealed on Sunday.

Around £10 million ($13 million, P670.7 million) of the Queen's private money was placed in funds held in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda, according to the leaked papers, which were first reported in Britain by the BBC and the Guardian newspaper.

They said the funds reinvested the money in an array of businesses, including controversial rent-to-own retailer, BrightHouse, which has been accused of exploiting the poor, and a chain of alcohol stores which later went bankrupt.

The investments, which were entirely legal, were made through the Duchy of Lancaster, which provides the monarch with an income and handles investments of her vast estate and remain current, the media outlets said.

There is no suggestion that the Queen's private estate acted illegally or failed to pay any taxes due.

But the leaks may raise questions over whether it is appropriate for the British head of state to invest in offshore tax havens.

ONE RULE FOR THE SUPER RICH

A spokeswoman for the Duchy of Lancaster said: "All of our investments are fully audited and legitimate."

"We operate a number of investments and a few of these are with overseas funds."

She added: "the Queen voluntarily pays tax on any income she receives from the Duchy."

The spokeswoman noted that one of the fund investments represents only 0.3 percent of the total value of the Duchy.

Meanwhile the money put into BrightHouse "is through a third party", and equates to just 0.0006 percent of the Duchy's value, she added.

The investments emerged as part of a new mass leak -- dubbed the Paradise Papers -- by the US-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which was behind the 2016 Panama Papers release.

The latest haul contains 13.4 million documents mainly from Appleby, an offshore law firm with offices in Bermuda and beyond, which were first obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, and shared with the ICIJ and partner media outlets.

A spokesman for the British government's taxation department on Sunday defended its efforts to tackle avoidance, noting it had secured an additional £160 billion ($209 billion, P10.7 trillion) in taxes since 2010.

"This includes more than £2.8 billion from those trying to hide money abroad to avoid paying what they owe," he said in a statement.

The spokesman added the department has 26,000 staff working on tax avoidance and evasion, while the government has provided an extra £800 million ($1 billion, P53.6 billion) to fund their efforts.

Jeremy Corbyn, the left-leaning leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party, reacted to the leaks on Twitter, linking to a video in which he had challenged the government on the issue in Parliament.

"There's one rule for the super-rich and another for the rest when it comes to paying tax," he wrote.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Panama Papers database on shell companies goes online

WASHINGTON - The public gained its first access to the Panama Papers records of over 200,000 secret offshore companies Monday when the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists put a searchable database up online.

The database, built on just a portion of the 11.5 million documents leaked from the Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca, reveals more than 360,000 names of individuals and companies behind the anonymous shell firms, the ICIJ said.

It reveals the full extent to which the world's wealthy, alongside criminals, create such nominee companies to stash and transfer assets out of sight of the law and tax officials.

Reports already published in April based on the explosive dossier linked some of the world's most powerful leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, British Prime Minister David Cameron and others to unreported offshore companies.

Iceland's prime minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, and Spain's industry minister Jose Manuel Soria, were forced to resign when they were tied to shell companies.

Until now access to the total cache of documents, originally provided by a mysterious "John Doe", was restricted to the ICIJ and a select group of international media.

'IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST'

The ICIJ said Monday it is publishing some of the information catalogued in a database "in the public interest," as a global movement against tax evasion and the secrecy accorded the beneficial owners of anonymous shell companies gains force.

The database "allows users to explore the networks of companies and people that used -- and sometimes abused -- the secrecy of offshore locales with the help of Mossack Fonseca and other intermediaries," the ICIJ said.

It said it was not making available raw records online, nor was it putting all the information from the records out, in part to prevent access to bank account details and personal data of those mentioned.

The database can be searched by individual and company name and address, and shows links between those in the database.

But it gives no information -- beyond their name -- on the full identities of those behind the companies, nor of the underlying assets linked to the accounts.

And often the names of companies are linked to other similarly anonymous companies.

Even so, the individuals associated with the firms plainly come from all four corners of the globe. Many of the names are Chinese, Middle Eastern, Latin American and European.

The data came from nearly four decades of digital archives of Mossack Fonseca, one of the leading firms in the world for creating secret companies.

It is not known how the documents came to light; Mossack Fonseca says its computer records were hacked from abroad.

However they were obtained, "John Doe" first provided them to the German newspaper Süeddeustche Zeitung, which then approached ICIJ to organize a collective analysis of them.

CRIMINALS, FILMMAKERS, FOOTBALLERS

The groups working with the ICIJ had full access to the Panama Papers, and their research has linked political leaders, celebrities and a few criminals to the companies.

- Putin's closest circle moved $2 billion through banks and shadow companies, according to the ICIJ, prompting the Russian leader to claim the Panama Papers was a US plot against him.

- Argentine President Mauricio Macri was also linked to offshore companies.

- China censored media and online social networks from mentioning links between the families of Chinese leaders with offshore entities.

- The names of Argentine footballer Lionel Messi, Hong Kong film star Jackie Chan and Spanish movie director Pedro Almodovar, all came up in the database.

Mossack Fonseca on Thursday sought a court order last week to prevent the ICIJ from putting the data online, arguing it would violate attorney-client privilege.

But the ICIJ said it is important the public be able to look up information on any offshore company.

"We think that information about who owns the company should be public and transparent," Marina Walker Guevara, deputy director of the ICIJ, told CNN.

She stressed, however, that "this is not disclosing private information en masse."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Putin aides, world leaders, stars tagged in secret offshore dealings

A massive leak of 11.5 million tax documents has exposed the secret offshore dealings of aides to Russian president Vladimir Putin, world leaders and celebrities including Barcelona forward Lionel Messi.

An investigation into the documents by more than 100 media groups, described as one of the largest such probes in history, revealed the hidden offshore dealings in the assets of around 140 political figures -- including 12 current or former heads of state.

The vast stash of records was obtained from an anonymous source by German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung and shared with media worldwide by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

The documents, from around 214,000 offshore entities, came from , a Panama-based law firm with offices in more than 35 countries.

Though most of the alleged dealings are said by the ICIJ to be legal, they are likely to have a serious political impact on many of those named.

ICIJ director Gerard Ryle said the documents covered the day-to-day business at Mossack Fonseca over the past 40 years.

"I think the leak will prove to be probably the biggest blow the offshore world has ever taken because of the extent of the documents," he said.

Among the main claims of the ICIJ investigations:

-- Close associates of Putin, who is not himself named in the documents, "secretly shuffled as much as $2 billion through banks and shadow companies," the ICIJ said.

-- The files identified offshore companies linked to the family of Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has led a tough anti-corruption campaign in his country, the ICIJ said.

-- In Iceland, the files show Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson and his wife secretly owned millions of dollars of investment in his country's banks during the financial crisis through an offshore company.

-- The law firm of a member of FIFA's ethics committee, Juan Pedro Damiani, had business ties with three men indicted in corruption scandal: former FIFA vice president Eugenio Figueredo, as well as Hugo Jinkis and his son Mariano, who were accused of paying bribes to win soccer broadcast rights in Latin America.

-- Argentine football great Messi and his father owned a Panama company, Mega Star Enterprises Inc., a shell company that had previously not come up in Spanish investigations into the father and son's tax affairs.

- 'Inside the offshore world' -

Also in the world of football, Francetv Info named UEFA president Michel Platini as the beneficiary of a Panama-based tax company, adding however that no illegal activity was alleged.

Platini's communications service said in a statement sent to AFP that "all of his accounts and assets are known to the tax authorities in Switzerland, where he has been a tax resident since 2007".

Iceland's Gunnlaugsson is expected to face a no-confidence vote this week over allegations he used a secret offshore firm called Wintris Inc. to hide millions of dollars in the British Virgin Islands.

Visibly irritated, the premier refused to answer reporters' questions during an interview broadcast on Swedish television Sunday evening.

"I have never hidden assets," Gunnlaugsson told a journalist from the Swedish SVT channel before leaving the room. His spokesman insisted he and his wife have scrupulously followed the law.

At least 33 people and companies listed in the documents were blacklisted by the US government for wrongdoing, such as North Korea and Iran, as well as Lebanon's Islamist group Hezbollah, the ICIJ said.

The leaked data, covering 1975 to the end of last year, provides what the ICIJ described as a "never-before-seen view inside the offshore world".

The massive leak of documents recalls Wikileaks' exploits of 2010 -- which included the release of 500,000 secret military files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and 250,000 diplomatic cables, and infuriated the US.

- 'Biggest leak in history' -
However, in terms of size, "the 'Panama Papers' is likely the biggest leak of inside information in history," according to ICIJ.

"It is equally likely to be one of the most explosive in the nature of its revelations," the group added.

Names also figuring in the leak included the president of Ukraine, the king of Saudi Arabia and the prime minister of Pakistan, the ICIJ statement said.

The documents show that "banks, law firms and other offshore players often fail to follow legal requirements to make sure clients are not involved in criminal enterprises, tax dodging or political corruption," the ICIJ said on its website.

"The files show that these fixers and middlemen protect themselves and their clients by concealing suspect transactions. In some instances, they work to head off official investigations by backdating and destroying documents," it added.

"These findings show how deeply ingrained harmful practices and criminality are in the offshore world," said Gabriel Zucman, an economist at the US-based University of California, Berkeley, cited by the consortium.

The leaked documents were reviewed by a team of more than 370 reporters from over 70 countries, according to the ICIJ.

The BBC cited Mossack Fonseca as saying it had operated "beyond reproach" for 40 years and had never been charged with any criminal wrongdoing.

It was not immediately clear who was the original source of the leaked documents.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com